Historically, bottles and containers have been shipped in many styles and shapes of inner packaging using many different kinds of materials. The goal of these packages, was and is, to protect bottles and containers during rigorous parcel shipping conditions such as the Post Office, UPS, Fed Ex, etc. So far, only a few of those packages have been successful in their structural protection of the shipped product, as well as satisfying additional areas such as ease of assembly and packaging as well as cost effectiveness to purchase and minimizing environmental impacts.
For years there have been ongoing design efforts to develop the “perfect package,” but there has not been much success and the packaging companies' design departments' struggle along every day with little or no success. There are products on the market today that really do not live up to the needed requirements for safely shipping bottles and containers as well as satisfying the other considerations.
Such prior art bottle packaging is generally included in an exterior corrugated paperboard box having a generally orthorhombic shape. The bottles are kept centered within the outer corrugated paperboard box through the utilization of expanded polystyrene foam. Other inserts which have been utilized include pressed or molded pulp inserts which are formed by taking a pulp-type product and through a molding process molding a structure having the desired contour to space the bottles away from the exterior box.
Such prior art packaging, while typically generally effective for protecting the bottles contained within the package, suffer from numerous drawbacks. For instance, expanded polystyrene foam is not readily recyclable and such molded bottle protecting inserts tend to take up a large amount of space and to be expensive to manufacture. Other alternative solutions include utilizing the outer box with sufficient interior packaging media (e.g. foam pellets, wadded up newspaper, etc.) to protect the bottles. Shipping companies have an affinity for standardized packaging which allows for the possibility of ensuring the safe delivery of goods without concern for the effectiveness of the packing which has occurred. When bottles are packed within an outer box in a manner that is not highly standardized, the shipping company cannot determine whether mishandling during transport or inadequate packing has led to any claims of damage. By standardizing the packaging and designing the standardized packaging to meet the requirements of the shipping companies, claims of damage can be properly made to the truly responsible parties.